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I have heard Madison described as "30 square miles surrounded by reality." It's a pretty fucking apt description. In Wisconsin's latest effort to emmulate the paradise that was Soviet Russia, the Milwaukee Council voted to follow Madison's lead and hike up minimum wages. They hope to push for a statewide minimum wage.

Great going, you assholes.

Let me give y'all some firsthand experience with the effects of minimum wage on the people it's purportedly designed to help. My dad used to own a jean factory in El Paso, where he was forced to pay his employees minimum wage. (I think at the time, it was like $4.25 an hour.) As soon as NAFTA came along, he was forced to compete with factories in Mexico that paid their employees $0.25 an hour, and let's just face it, that's not going to fucking happen.

Eventually, my dad, and every other garment manufacturer in El Paso was forced to shut down. Instead of making a "decent living wage" of $4.25 an hour, his employees made $0.00 an hour, because they didn't have a fucking job anymore. I'm sure they were thanking all that "progressive" minimum wage legislation when they were standing in the fucking unemployment line. I don’t know of many grocery stores that accept leftist ideology as legal tender to exchange for food.

Minimum wage is fine in theory. Of course, when the theory fundamentally conflicts with the realities of the marketplace, it's going to fall flat on it's face. Employers don't want to pay people more than their services are worth, and punching a button on a cash register at McDonalds, or standing behind a counter at a convenience store isn't worth a hell of a lot. Sure, that may be the only job some people are qualified for, but they shouldn't expect to be paid as if they have specialized skills.